


Bodies and Souls

by chirrpy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, F/F, F/M, M/M, personificated lions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-09-26 06:34:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9871712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chirrpy/pseuds/chirrpy
Summary: A sudden intruder sets everyone in alarm and the green lion is missing. When everyone goes to look for the cause it turns out that there are secrets not even Allura knew about Voltron and the Lions





	1. Just a whistle

**Author's Note:**

> MAJOUR AU, HEADCANON AND CANON DIVERSITY
> 
> This takes place after the Blade of Marmora incident and before they make their move to defeat Zarkon. Thace has not been found out nor monitored to the extend that the time table of the plan had to be moved, Keith and Shiro keep his connection to the Blade of Marmora hidden for now, so it takes place some months between this and the showdown of Season 2
> 
> Also please note that english is not my native language and this very likely has a lot of gramatical and spelling errors;;;;; have mercy on me, but please do tell me what you think of the concept
> 
> STILL LOOKING FOR A BETA READER

It seemed like an uneventful day. Like usually, it was almost impossible to say what time it was, nor what day or age. Impossible to say if night or day for anything of earths standarts. But somehow the Paladins had gotten used to the astral space outside instead of bright sunshine or clouds. And so it seemed almost uneventful after so much had happened in the past… time that had passed. The whole ordeal with the Blade of Marmora seemed almost like a dream, even if everyone knew that it definitely was more than real. They had made a very strong ally, and for Keith it seemed as if he found a strange piece of peace for himself. At least that was the case for a couple of hours-

“Yeah, but I still would like to know how that pool actually works-”

The sudden sound of alarm echoed through the ships control room, Allura quickly opening a map of the castle to see where it came from. Everyone was suddenly allert with Pidge quickly jumping to her station as well to check herself.

“Someone unknown is in the castle!” Coran quickly turned around to face the princess, face in shock.

“But how did they get in?!”

“I don’t know-”  
“My lion’s gone!” Pidges voice almost jumped an octave just the same moment the alarm suddenly stopped and died out.

“Errrr… what’s going on?” Hunk looked around for someone to have an explanation, only to be met by confused stares.

“Allura, you said the alarm came from within the castle. Where exactly?”

“…. It was at the green lions hangar.”

“Wait didn’t Pidge say-”

“The green lion was not registered on the map, almost as if it vanished!”

Eyes fixated on Shiro he paused for a tick before nodding.

“We’re heading there then. Pidge you stay-”

“Oh I am not going to stay here.”

“Hunk, can you stay here with Allura and Corran then? Lance, Keith, Pidge and I will go and see what is going on.”

Out to suit up and down towards the hangers they went, Pidge almost leaving everyone behind as she wanted to get to the source the most. But at the green lions hanger there was-… nothing. No sight of the giant green robotic lion. It was absolutely empty. Pidges stomache turned around and she felt sick. 

“No way-”

_“Guys? We located something at the blue lions now-”_

Even before Hunk could finish Lance was already yelling and storming off.

“What?! Oh No they don’t!”

“Lance!”

The whole situation was a mess. So much Allura could tell from the map screen and what she heared through the speaking channel. Should she intervine? Maybe go and see for herself?

Shiro softly layed his hand on Pidges shoulder.

“We’ll find your lion. We did once, we’ll find it again.”

Right. Quickly pushing away thoughts Pidge turned around so she and Shiro could follow Lance and Keith to the blue lions hanger now. Who knew what stunts these two would pull on their own with the intruder?

“Hey! Where are you?! Leave my lion be!”

The buzzing sound that reminded of a screwdriver stopped for a second and off the hiding of prespective came a head. Someone sat on the blue lions head.

“Chill. I got this under control, Lance. Could you get off my back and tell Pidge to come here?”

A moment of silence arouse as the figure went out of sight again, Keiths gaze falling onto Lance who seemed frozen in place.

“Do you know the-”

“No I don’t!”

With Pidge and Shiro joining them, the two male turned around to them.

“Pidge, did you invite someone we don’t know?!”

“What?”

“Ah!” The voice came back, the buzzing stopping as the figure now completely arose to her feet standing on the blue lions snout. It seemed to be… a woman? Her skin was almost silver and she grinne, her short hair of a strange ocher color. She made some steps forward, Shiros arm glowing up as he got a bit into his knees.

“Who are you, and what your you doing to the blue lion?”

No answer, as the figure just hopped off the blue lions snout, landing on the ground with no problem nor scratch, just a metallic strange sound. Lance pointed his bayard on her while Keith drew his blade, only Pidge seemingly… confused.

“Just wait a sec, I’ll awaken Blue and I can explan.” She said, facing the Paladins as she layed her hand against the Blue lions body, her hand glowing as the place she touched, her eyes seemingly turning black and almost like a computer hacking screen out of a movie. Pidge could feel the others move and stepped forward.

“Wait!”

The woman took her hand off the lions body, her eyes changing back to a normal green as she smiled sheepishly.

“You guys should close your eyes for a sec.”

Almost on queue after those words a blinding light emitted from the blue lion, engulfing the whole room before in a flash it seemed to vanish again. The Paladins opened their eyes only to notice that the blue lion was-… gone. The giant robotic lion was… suddenly _gone_.

But before Lance could even yell that out their attnetion was drawn by a chiming sound that came from… _above?_

Heads turning upwards a strange ball seemed to descend down until only mere meter before landing on the ground it was evident that it was a-… woman.

She uncurled from her ball and just the moment before landing went into a pose as she landed kneeling and then slowly straightening up as if she was presenting herself.

“The party don start, till I walk in.”

“Hi Blue.”

“Wait- WHAT?!” Lance felt his whole mind going blank as he just stared at the tall woman, not understanding the world.

_“Guys?! What’s going on, the blue lion just vanished from the map!”_

“Hold on a second Hunk, we-… just hold on.” Was all Pidge could say as the taller woman seemed to stretch, showing very clearly her female body type.

“Well this is something. So what’s going on, Green?” She asked at the smaller intruder that now turned towards the present Paladins.

“It’s a long story but- If I may introduce myself. I am the green lion. And that is the blue lion.”

“Hi~” She grinned, waving at Lance before looking back at Green.

“Once we get everyone turned into a smaller form I can explain it a bit better. I think Black knows the most about this.”

“Okay- wait- **how**?!” Lance was unable to form coherent sentances getting a shrug of her shoulders by Blue.

“The short version is this: I found a hidden unfinished code inside of me and decided to finish it myself when I had time, which wasn’t much seeing that I had only enough energy with Pidge piloting me and that was usually during fights. I completed the code now and noticed it has a core that would fit for all lions equally so I figured the others should have this code inside of them as well and started off with Blue. I know Black knows more about this than I do, but-”

“So… You really are our lions?” Pidge asked with an almost soft voice, as Keith now deactivated his bayard and Shiro went out of his fighting stance.

“Well I’ll be damed if I’m not the blue lion, cause I’ll smack that imposter right into the next weblum.”

Silence.

“You really picked upa lot on earth.” Green commented before turning her attention again towards the Paladins.

“This is just as new to us as it is to you and honestly I even doubt Coran or Allura know much about this code. All I know is that it changes our form to this temporarily.”

“So you are saying every lion has this?” Keith asked carefully, still not entirely trusting the new situation.

“I am not completely sure but I am 99.8% sure.”

“That means the red lion-”

“Yellow and the big chef herself, Black.”

Shiro stayed silent as slowly the eyes were focusing on him. He seemed in thoughts.

“Allright. I’ll go to the control room and you finish up your buisness Green. Black has quite the explaining to do.”


	2. Mission Status

 

“Okay, Red, on my signal you start the lap. We’ll do one without your hyperspeed, one with and the last with continuing sprints.”

“Understood.”

“Pidge you can start the sensors now. Ready-”

_A quintent before._

“You have some explaining to do, Black.”

Shiro stood there not completely turned to his lion, almost cautios about the whole new situation. His stance towards the situation made all of them quite nerveous and their lions, even if now in another form, could feel it.

“Yes, I know Shiro. But before that, I wanted to speak out to Princess Allura.” The black lions female face softened as her eyes fell on the altean princess, making a step forward.

“It is an honor to meet you in this Form, Princess. I am sure I speak for all of us lions for this part.” Blue seemed to think about it, giving the yellow lion a gaze before noticing that he was dozing off, kicking softly against his shins to wake him up.

“I-… am grateful for your words… Black Lion, but this situation is-..”

Black nodded before her gaze went around the Paladins and then towards her fellow lions and back at the crew.

“This might take a while to explain and really sink in, so you might want to take a seat.”

Coran hesitated for a second before he went to his control panel, tapping softly on it, as several chairs appeared from the ground, for everyone to sit down. Seeing everyone but the lions seated Black then began to explain.

“Before the war with Zarkon, Alfor worked with other people on a special code that should be able to change our forms from the lions you know into something closer to the race of our Paladins. What you see us now in is a close representation of thoughts and images found inside of our Paladins brains.”

“That explains why Blue looks like my sister.” Lance interrupted, his eyes falling on the darkskinned female with her long brown hair that she had now bound to a ponytail with a band that Allura had given her.

“And she’s a beautiful woman.”

“Blue.”

“Sorry.”

“…. We didn’t catch much of the process or purpose aside of that. In fact this was only opened up to me and Green, seeing that she was back then still the most advanced of us all. But even to her it was only the information of a hidden code. When the war broke out there was no possibility of the code being completed so it was left unfinished inside each one of us.” Blacks gaze fell onto the green lion that quickly noticed that she was now given the opportunity to speak.

“Since Pidge got me to restart I tried working on the code and finishing it whenever I could, but there wasn’t much in my hands in standby mode or when we were fighting so it took me this long to alone complete it inside of myself." 

"The thing is that even if we don’t know what purpose this form had officially and intentionally we can still assume that it was meant to be an addition to the overall powerfull force of us lions and Voltron." 

"I worked on it because I thought we might find something out to help against Zarkon. A lot of the code is interactively working with our power sources and a so called SOUL inside of us that corresponds with the energy of _still quintessence_. Kind of like an enginge that starts up with the fuel of our Paladins aura and presence. It gives us a sentient mind of our own. I couldn’t draw out all informations so I figured we needed to just figure it out ourselfs in the practical way." 

“And that is mostly why we have changed into this form now.”

The information slowly sank in before Coran seemed to take the word.

“I remember. The team working on the lions was talking about a project called _Small CyberKinetic Form_.”

“That fits the name of the Code!” Green said out loud, earning a laugh from Blue.

“ _SCK Form_ more like _S_ i _CK Form_ am I right?”

“But we don’t catch any illness… we’re still robots.” It went silent, Lance just staring at the red lion after she finished her sentance.

“Are-… Are you- Nevermind….”

“There are a lot of components of the code that seem to be for close hand to hand combat, but it’s mostly encrypted to me because of the way it works with Soul, Energy and Quintessence.”

“I know this seems frightening and new to you Princess Allura, but I believe there was a higher purpose to this code. If it helps us defeat Zarkon-” 

Black stopped. In the middle of her sentance she just seemed to freeze.

“Theeeen we definitely should explore the heck out of this code and make use of it! It could potentially save millions of lives and cut this war shorter!” 

Black looked up and mouthed a soft  _“thank you”_ towards Blue that just nodded to her.

“On this note, Green, you worked on the completion of it, what exactly did you find?” The green lion almost naturally opened up a big screen, something usually only Allura did and started to bring up images of.. Reds body.

“We’ll start with Red as an example, seeing that she is the most agile one. Everyone of us has their unique special coding but we all share the same prototype of a CyberKinetic Body. Meaning it is a combination of both a robotic body and the components of SOUL and Energy that is used as a fuel and our main system. This body can access a bayard of it’s own or even turn parts of this body into a weapon. It depends on our own position in Voltron. So Red and I are more of defense and offense and close range fitghters while Blue and Yellow have likely a better time in the line behind us. Each of us also has unique abilities that go with the element we were assigned. Fire for Red, Forest and Flora for me, Water for Blue and Ground for Yellow. Also this body can heal itself and repair damage all alone. Since we usually need our Paladins presence for that as lions we use a seperate battery for that, which can be charged up once we turn back into lions and connect with the castle.”

“If I may ask: What about your lion forms? How and when do you turn back into them?” Alluras question was definitely justified so with a swishing movement of Greens hand the monitor vanished again.

“Whenever we want. We need at least 2% left of our internal battery and enough space. Once the code is complete it is easily accessable by will. Like… the Paladins bayard.”

“What a crappy example.” Blue commented getting quite the annoyed glare from the green lion.

“We can only form Voltron as lions, so this form is only usable in dire situations or in smaller areas. I also have the theory, that seeing that we take form of what our Paladins imagine us to look we were also meant to partake in diplomatic events. Still it has different combat and fighting aspects… Maybe-”

A sudden movement and a metallic noise made everyone stop in their thoughts as they saw Reds flat hand in Blacks face. Blue was the first to move, snorting as she tried to hide laughter.

“We’re not thinking about that. This is **not** the purpose.” She said with a stern voice that left no room for arguments. It was almost a comical scene seeing that Red was barely 160cm tall and therefore the smallest of all of them.

Black though didn’t move even when the hand left her face eventually, her face softening. “You’re right, Red.”

“Let’s just focus on finding out what this is about.”

—

“-Ready? _**GO**_!” A beeping sound ringed in her head as Red suddenly took off running to the end of the long corridor in less than a tick before stopping to not crash into the wall.

“Holy cow!” Green went towards her Paladin, looking over her shoulder onto the computer screen.

“Huh… Guess she naturally hyperspeeds when she’s told to go as fast as possible.”

“She’s almost faster than a bullet! She definitely goes beyond the speed of sound.”

“Well the _SCK Form_ is a compromised smaller body. The same energy and speed is in her lion form but since she’s bigger then it slows her down. So I guess she just… hyperspeeds.” The both looked at the results and video footage on the screen, before Green huffed annoyed.

“The video footage is useless. You can’t see or capture her properly.”

“How did it go?” Unfazed Red came back towards them, seemingly interested in the results.

“Well we figured out that your normal fast movement is already hyper speed so, now I just wonder how long you can hyperspeed in succession.”

“Well I think until my battery runs low.” She said nonchalantly, eventually sitting down next to the other two.

“How much battery power did you need for that?” Pidge asked now turning to face the smaller form of the red lion.

“I don’t really know, but I guess if I did it 10 more times I would lose about 2 to 3 % of my battery.”

“This is so cool, Green do you think we could use that code or even enhance it?” Green turned towards her Paladin in thought.

“We could try.”

“Guys, don’t  take this personally but I would like to see where Keith is.” Red said with a serious face and straightened herself before without even waiting for a respond she vanished.

“Aaand there she goes… So should we try to look at my special stuff or see if we can call in someone else?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for everyone who enjoyed the story so far! The beginning 3 or 4 chapters are pretty slow paced because I suck at writing beginnings and expositions haha, but after that a plot will kick in, also be ready for aaaaall the Paladin and Lion bonding!
> 
> Thanks a lot for the Kudos! I hope you enjoyed the story! Please leave a comment to help me improve the story!
> 
> Stiiiiill in dire need for a Beta-Reader;;;;


	3. Burning Water or Natural Catasrophe? Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on the chapters will come up not as fast and not that short anymore. I will finish this 2 parter and then we go into the Bonding "arc" before the real dramatic plot kicks in. 
> 
> Once again thank you so much for the Kudos and the left Comments! I am always happy to read them! If you have any critique just go ahead!
> 
> STILL LOOKING FOR A BETA READER

“This is so weird but kinda cool.” Blue laughed at her Paladins words, leaning back to shift her weight onto her arms, head tilting to the side as she grinned at him.

“You tell me. I had no idea about any of this. I mean I noticed the code but I kinda ignored it and now _BAM_ , here we are ready to party.” Lance had to laugh.

“Green is right, you picked up a lot on earth. That’s so cool! I thought you were shut down all those 10 000 years.”

“Well I was almost. But Keith visiting send me enough power so I could at least restart. Not enough to move tho. But then my prince charming came around.” She threw him a rather devious look almost as if flirting with him, invoking conflicted feelings in the darkskinned male.

“So how did you get all of that earth stuff? Did you connect to the internet or something?”

“Well basically. Took some time to figure it out, but eventually I did. Snooped around and learned a lot of things, downloaded music and all that. I basically got the whole i-tunes library stored inside of me.”

“What?! That’s so cool!” Blue grinned at her Paladins excitement only averting her attnetion when metal clacking was heared. She looked forward only to see Red passing by.

“Ey yo Mama, gimme your number!” Lance burst into a laughing fit, when he heared that, Red just stopping in her tracks, seemingly confused.

“I have the feeling you just insulted me.”

“Whaaaat? Meeee? Never, you know I love you, Red baby~ So where are you heading to? Oh lemme guess. You looking for Keith?” Red nodded in affirmation, the Blue lion swinging herself up to stand and walk over to her companion.

“We’re joining.”

“We are?” Lance jumped up and followed his lion, not exactly understanding her train of thoughts and looking between both Red and Blue, back and forth.

“Yeah we are. There’s something I wanna do with all of you guys anyway.” Blue said Red just shrugging her shoulders before continuing to walk.

“Seriously, what are you planning?”

“Nothing much. Just being super cool and badass.”

—

“This is a lot to take in.”

“Yes it is. I am sorry you are suddenly thrown into this situation. Especially after the happenings with the Blade of Marmora.” Shiro had no idea how to respond to this. It really seemed a bad timing right now, but he also understood Blacks motivation in all of this. They could higher their chances of defeating Zarkon. It was so much of a gamble but it seemed plausable.

“Right now I want the others to experience this form and take time to bond closer with their Paladins. It might not seem this way, but we are more than just machines. Some of us need to realize this now.” Shiro could feel a sort of worry inside of Black, a strange thing if he was honest. She cared a lot for everyone, like a mother and he thought back to Blues words in the hanger.  _“The Chef herself, Black.”_ The lions had a relationship together with everyone that the Paladins didn’t know about. Probably not even Allura and Coran.

“What about us?” The sentance shook Black awake, her head turning to him with eyes wide and almost in shock. He quickly leaned back and highered his arms.

“D-Did I say something wrong?” Blacks mien softened before she looked down to the ground. She seemed sad.

“No. This line just awakes a lot of memories.” She explained before looking up again.

“Shiro. I have seen into your heart. I have tested you and determined who you are.” She reached out, her cold metal hand softly against his chest.

“I trust you. And I know that our relationship is deeper than you could imagine.” She looked into his eyes, almost piercing him with her stare, the silver eyes making her seem almost… threatening. He just nodded, Black softly taking her hand back and standing up.

“But you can always deepen a bond even more. So? Wanna hit the training deck?”

—

Just several doboshes later Shiro and black reached the highered observation room of the training area, finding Pidge and Green there.

“Oh, someone already training?”

“Yeah, Red and Blue challanged their Paladins to a _duo off_.”

Shiro frowned. “A _duo off_?”

“Yeah.” Pidge turned around to explain. “Red and Blue are a team and Keith and Lance are one. They get all the same enemies and a time limit. Each defeated enemy gives them points, based on how they were taken out. Green scans their tactical movements and teamworks as well.” 

A wide grin appeared on Blacks face as she crossed her arms.

“That is almost cruel.”

“Why?” Green scoffed at Shiros question.

“You don’t really believe Lance and Keith have a chance against the right side of Voltron, do you?”

> _“Hey! Green, ya listening?! We’re ready!”_

The green lion turned back to the window looking out only Red visible in the center of the training area.

“Wait, where is Blue?” Green tapped on the window enhancing a corner of the room where Blue sat a bit more above ground, hiding behind a pillar. The door opened once again with Keith and Lance coming in, in full Paladin armor.

“Did we miss anything?”

“I didn’t sound the start yet.”

> _“Green. We’re ready.”_

“I gooot iiit, stop being so impatient you two, geez. Don’t forget your time limit is 15 doboshes. The system will send out senturies based on the data I get from your combat. Exploit as much of that code as you guys can.”

Red gave a nod, Blue looking towards the observasion chamber and giving a thumbs up.

“Okay. Ready? Set.”

**_Go_ **


End file.
